


[with symphonies playing in a] World without Sound

by shadowtraveled (meteorfest)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M, Post Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-04
Updated: 2014-06-04
Packaged: 2018-02-03 10:53:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1742150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meteorfest/pseuds/shadowtraveled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico di Angelo disappeared from Camp Half-Blood four hundred and eighty-nine days ago. Percy counts the days, wondering when, if ever, Nico will return and why Nico's disappearance had such an impact on him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	[with symphonies playing in a] World without Sound

**Author's Note:**

> I've been working on this fic for months and it's only about half done at this point. I wanted to at least get the first half posted somewhere. I can't and won't make any promises on when the second half will be posted; school and my fic for the Riptide PJO Big Bang have priority over all other fics, including this one.
> 
> Title is taken from the song "Given and Denied" by Poets of the Fall; I highly recommend taking a few minutes to listen to the song because it's just really good! :)
> 
> Many thanks to Cedarleaf for being my soundboard for this fic!

Four hundred and eighty-nine days.

Nico di Angelo had disappeared four hundred and eighty-nine days ago. Percy had been keeping track of the days, though he hadn't realized why it had meant so much to him to do so in the beginning. At first, he'd started counting just so he could hold the days over Nico's head when the son of Hades came back. Percy had been sure that Nico would be back, because Nico always came back. Counting the days was easy.

Percy remembered the last time he'd seen Nico. Gaea had been defeated, the Doors of Death closed, and the Athena Parthenos returned to the Greeks. There was a celebratory feast held at Camp Half-Blood, with both Greeks and Romans celebrating the end of a centuries-long feud between themselves. Nico had been sitting at the Hades cabin with Hazel, smiling lightly at his sister as she talked about the training she was looking forward to doing under the Hecate kids. Later, Nico had been skulking around the edge of the campfire, barely visible against the darkness of the August night.

He'd thought it was nothing out of the ordinary for the son of Hades, Nico's antisocial tendencies merely at work. Percy knew that Nico was reserved, didn't like to be around other people that much. Social events wore the younger demigod out, made him irritable and withdrawn. It was nothing to worry about, just normal Nico behavior.

And then Nico had simply vanished.

* * * * *

Percy had thought that Nico would hang around for once. He'd thought that he could ask the younger demigod to join him for a spar, try to be his friend. He knew they'd never been that close, but he'd hope they'd finally get a chance to be, if they could just hang out a bit. Percy had wanted to talk to him, apologize for letting him go through Tartarus alone, for not trusting him again. There was a lot that Percy had been hoping to make up for, but then Nico had left.

He'd asked around. No one had seen him slip out of camp. Hazel had told Percy that Nico had come back to the Hades cabin after campfire, but hadn't been there the next morning. She'd said that it wasn't unusual for Nico, that he often wandered off before dawn. She'd reassured him that Nico would be back; it could be hours or days, but she was sure he'd be back.

So Percy waited. He got back into the swing of things at Camp Half-Blood, picking up his usual position as sword-fighting instructor. The treaty between the Greeks and Romans was still in the works, representatives from Camp Jupiter staying at Camp Half-Blood to help in negotiations. Reyna and Frank, as the praetors, were there, as were a couple of the Centurions, acting as representatives of the Senate. The rest of the seven helped in the negotiations, keeping Percy busy, and his mind off his missing cousin.

Days dragged into weeks and even Hazel, with her stead-fast belief that her brother would come back, began to wonder where Nico was. There had been no word from the son of Hades. Hazel had tried to send her brother an Iris Message, as had Percy, but neither of them had gotten through, which only furthered Hazel's distress. Percy was upset, but Hazel was devastated. She felt abandoned by her brother and cried in Percy's arms when Nico still didn't come back.

They'd tried to get their other friends involved, trying to figure out where Nico had gone, why they couldn't get a hold of him. Annabeth told them to calm down, that it wasn't unlike Nico to pull stunts like this; she reminded Percy of the times when Nico had done this exact thing a few times during the Titan war. It was little comfort, but it kept Percy and Hazel from running out of camp to search for Nico.

Percy counted the days, though. Fifteen days since Nico had disappeared.

* * * * *

Weeks became months and, still, there was no word from Nico. Percy became increasingly frustrated and he made it known. He complained about the son of Hades never being around, he ranted about how annoying it was that he couldn't get a hold of Nico, he let his anger at the younger demigod for leaving Hazel out while he sparred with Jason.

“I can't believe he would just leave without a word, even to Hazel!” Percy raved during one particular spar.

It had been seven months by then, since Nico had disappeared, and Jason had heard this rant before. He parried the strike from the son of Poseidon and counter-attacked, the clash of swords ringing through the arena, drowning out Percy's continued ramble.

“Who does he even think he is, running off like that?” Percy asked. “If he shows his face after what he did to Hazel, I'm going to - ”

Jason disarmed Percy, hooking his sword over Percy's and forcing it down, out of the son of Poseidon's grip. The match between them over, Jason straightened, bringing his own sword up to rest the flat of the blade on his shoulder.

“Look, Percy,” he told the other demigod. “I don't think Nico's coming back.”

Percy picked up his sword and re-capped it, letting the blade shift back into its usual pen form before tucking it into his pocket. He looked at Jason and skeptically arched one brow. “You don't think? Sounds more like you're pretty sure he's not coming back. Got something you want to share?”

Jason bit his lip, clearly unsure of whether to answer Percy or not. For a long moment, there was silence between the two boys, Percy waiting for Jason to say something and Jason trying to stall. Finally, Jason slumped his shoulders with a heavy sigh, bringing his free hand up to run through his hair.

“Nico said that he was going to leave,” Jason explained. His voice was soft, his expression doleful, and Percy realized that the son of Jupiter had been keeping this quiet for a long time. “He told me that, after everything with Gaea and the war was over, he was going to leave forever. I didn't think he was going to go through with it after we all came back, but...I guess he proved me wrong.”

Percy hadn't realized before that Jason had been close to Nico; as close as Nico would let anyone get, at any rate. Nico had been distant ever since Bianca died and very rarely let anyone get close to him. Hazel had been close to him because she was Nico's sister, probably the closest to the son of Hades, for he truly loved her. Jason had been close to Nico, though Percy didn't know exactly how close.

And, now that he thought about it, Percy couldn't even claim to be close to the son of Hades. How often had he actually hung out with Nico? How much did he know about him? He'd wanted to get close to Nico, build the friendship that they'd hadn't really had. That was why he'd been so upset when Nico had disappeared. The thing was, he should have been doing that from the start. What was it that Nico had said to him?

_“Not giving someone a second thought...”_

It hadn't just applied to Bob the Titan. In the last couple of years, when had Percy really given Nico a second thought? When had Percy ever asked Nico to hang out with him, to even come over a play a dumb video game? It hadn't been until the day Nico disappeared that Percy had really thought to hang out with the kid.

“Percy, I'm sorry,” Jason cut through the other boy's thoughts. “Nico asked me not to tell you he was planning to leave. I just couldn't keep it quiet anymore.”

Percy shook his head. “It's not your fault, man.” Jason couldn't be held at fault for Nico being gone and, if Nico had asked Jason not to tell, Jason was the kind of guy to keep his word not to tell. “At least I know now.”

They dropped the subject, but it ate at Percy, how casual he acted, knowing that Nico probably wasn't going to come back. He couldn't help feeling guilty, as if he were part of the reason the son of Hades had left. He knew that, despite having a cabin at Camp Half-Blood and being accepted among the campers after the final battle with Kronos, Nico had never really felt at home at camp, but Percy had thought that, maybe, Nico would come around. To just leave and not come back?

Percy didn't think he could handle it, not seeing Nico again.

* * * * *

Three more months passed and June came along, a year to the day when Percy came to Camp Jupiter and met Nico di Angelo, the Ambassador of Pluto. Over the last few months, his revelations after his match with Jason had gotten under his skin, driving him mad with guilt and despair. It had taken its toll on him, his friends, and his relationship with Annabeth. The daughter of Athena had broken up with him, telling him that she wasn't going to compete with Percy's feelings for Nico.

“I'm supposed to be your girlfriend,” Annabeth told him, arms crossed tightly over her chest. “We were going to go to college together, go live in New Rome. We had plans, Percy, and we can't go through with them, not if your heart isn't in it.”

She didn't look at him, keeping her grey eyes downcast so Percy couldn't see the pain in them. He knew she loved him, more than she'd loved anyone else. Telling him this had to hurt more than the fires of the Phlegethon.

“Annabeth - ”

“I love you, Percy, but I'm not going to take the backseat anymore,” she continued. “I can't take it anymore. Figure out how you feel for sure.” She stepped forward and pressed a kiss to Percy's cheek. “You'll know where to find me when you make up your mind, Seaweed Brain.”

She turned her back and walked away then, leaving Percy standing outside his cabin as she headed for her own. Percy had little choice but to go into his cabin, unless he wanted to stand outside and let the other campers gape at him – there was already a group watching, having been witness to Annabeth breaking up with Percy. The son of Poseidon closed the door to his cabin behind him and went over to his bed, flopping down hard on the mattress with a heavy sigh.

“Great. Now what?” he asked the empty cabin.

No answer came to him, of course. Percy stayed on his bed for a few moments before standing up again, crossing his cabin floor to the fountain sitting in the corner. He fished a drachma out of his pocket and recited the prayer for an Iris Message before tossing the coin into the mist.

“Nico di Angelo, please.”

He'd tried this so many times. He couldn't begin to count how many drachma he'd thrown into the mist, only to have them returned every time. How many times did he silently pray for the call to go through _this time_? How many times did he tug at his hair in frustration every time the call disconnected?

_“I'm sorry, your call cannot go through. Please try again later.”_

The mist spat Percy's drachma back out and the son of Poseidon caught the coin with ease, as he did every time. He turned from the fountain, running his hands through his hair as he always did, groaning in agitation.

“Where _are_ you, Nico?” he shouted into his cabin. If he could even get an answer to whether or not the son of Hades was alive, that would be one thing. Hazel, continuing her stay at Camp Half-Blood to learn magic from the Hecate kids, had told Percy that she'd know if her brother were dead the last time he'd asked her. “Why did you have to leave?”

It was a question he'd asked for months, the answer always the same; Nico had left because he'd felt he didn't belong. Nico had told Percy that himself a couple of years ago. Percy hadn't really been all that welcoming to the son of Hades, either. Gods, he wished he could have changed that. He should have been a better friend to Nico, a better cousin.

But was that really what he wanted to be for Nico in the first place? Annabeth had just broken up with Percy because she said he cared more about Nico than he did about her. As much as he wished that weren't the truth, Percy couldn't deny it. Yes, he loved Annabeth, but lately, it didn't seem like he loved her as much as he had before. He couldn't even put his finger on when he'd first realized that his love for Annabeth wasn't what it was before, wasn't what Annabeth deserved.

All he knew was that Annabeth had been right to break up with him. She didn't deserve to be put aside because Percy wasn't being a good boyfriend. Despite everything they'd been through in Tartarus, they just weren't working out anymore. He couldn't string her along. She deserved so much more than that. He couldn't give her what she wanted in a boyfriend and, honestly, Percy was beginning to realize that he never had been what Annabeth wanted.

The thing was, though, that Percy wasn't entirely sure if Annabeth was right about him having feelings for Nico. Just because he was worried about the son of Hades, constantly trying to figure out where the younger demigod had disappeared to, wondering where Nico was, that didn't mean that he had feelings for Nico, did it?

Annabeth had told him to figure out how he felt. Percy just didn't know where to start; there were so many conflicting thoughts that ran through his head. He loved Annabeth, but not enough. He worried and wondered about Nico, but did that mean he had feelings for the son of Hades? He wanted to know where Nico was, whether he was alive, why he'd run away in the first place, but on the other hand, there was a part of him that wanted to strangle the younger demigods for leaving, for hurting Hazel.

It was too much to think on right now, Percy decided. He turned on his heel and left the cabin, heading for the arena to give his daily lesson.

* * * * *

It was August and Percy had had a few major, life-changing epiphanies. First, after some soul-searching, he'd realized that he was attracted to guys as much as he was attracted to girls – which sort of explained his attention to Luke, aside from the whole enemy thing; there had been a part of him that had been attracted to the son of Hermes and it was probably the fact that Luke had been his enemy that he'd never realized it before.

After realizing his bisexuality, Percy went to the Aphrodite cabin and asked if he could talk to Mitchell; the son of Aphrodite himself was bisexual, so Percy thought talking to him would help him with accepting his sexuality. It led to a long, deep conversation, one that Percy had found a little uncomfortable, but so thoroughly relieving. It wasn't as if it felt like the weight of the world was off his shoulders (he knew exactly how that felt), but he definitely felt better after the conversation with Mitchell.

Except for one thing that he'd realized as they talked.

That was the second life-changing epiphany; while he talked to Mitchell, Percy had slowly come to understand what Annabeth had been talking about when she broke up with him. She'd said something about Percy's feelings for Nico and, at the time, he'd only thought she meant his overwhelming desire to find the missing son of Hades. It was so much more than that.

Percy had never been the type of person to bottle up his feelings, so much as hide from ones that didn't feel right to him and let what felt _normal_ take precedence. It was in this way that he'd always let himself think of Nico only as a kid he knew, someone he might consider a brother if they were closer. The feelings he considered normal overshadowed the deeper feelings he had for Nico, until his discussion with Mitchell helped bring them to the surface.

“If you don't mind me asking,” Mitchell spoke up after the two of them had established a rapport and Percy began to accept his bisexuality. “Is there someone in particular who made you realize you were bi?”

“Two, actually,” Percy admitted. He and Mitchell were the only ones in the cabin at the moment, with most of the Aphrodite kids out training with Piper. It made it much easier to talk to the younger demigod. “Annabeth first suggested it, the day she broke up with me. I didn't think much about it at the time because, well, she kind of threw me off with the break up.”

“My siblings are _still_ thrown off by the break up,” Mitchell interjected.

“Imagine how I feel,” Percy pointed out. “I still love Annabeth. It's just...not the same as it used to be.”

“And does that have anything to do with the other person you mentioned?”

Percy gave a nod. “Yeah, I think so.”

Mitchell waited for Percy to continue, but the son of Poseidon stayed quiet for a long time. Percy had honestly never voiced his thoughts on this subject before, since it was still so new to him and, before talking to Mitchell, he hadn't really had anyone to confide in about it. It wasn't as if he could talk to Annabeth about it, with her being his ex-girlfriend and having gone to Camp Jupiter to study the Romans and their more recent history, and Grover was off doing his Lord of the Wild thing. Jason had other things to deal with, Leo was busy with something in Bunker Nine. Percy really didn't think he could or should talk to Hazel about it.

“The other person is Nico,” Percy finally said. He leaned back, propping his arms back with his hands against the mattress of the bed he was sitting on, and stared up at the ceiling for a moment. “Ever since he disappeared, I haven't been able to stop thinking about him. I've been worried about him. I don't know where he's gone or why he left, but that's nothing new. He used to do this all the time. I wouldn't really think about it, but this time is different. I _notice_ that he's not there.”

Every day, Percy noticed that Nico wasn't there. He checked the dining pavilion every morning at breakfast to see if Nico was there, sitting next to his sister at the Hades table, only to be disheartened by the sight of Hazel sitting alone as she did every meal because she wasn't allowed to sit elsewhere. Percy would check the arena to see if he could catch a glimpse of Nico training against the practice dummies, only to see Clarisse instructing a group during their lessons. Every evening, Percy searched the faces of campers gathering for dinner, hoping to see Nico finally coming back, only to slump his shoulders in defeat when there was no sign of the son of Hades.

“I can't get a hold of him, either,” Percy continued. “Hazel and I have both tried to Iris Message him and he doesn't answer. We would know if something had happened to him, if he'd...if he'd died.”

Hazel would know. She'd told him she would know if Nico was dead. Nico was out there, somewhere, alive. He just wasn't letting anyone come in contact with him. Nico di Angelo had walked out of their lives, walked out of _Percy's_ life.

And Percy couldn't handle it.

Mitchell's lips were quipped into a small, sad smile when Percy looked to the son of Aphrodite again. “I think I understand,” he told Percy. “You love him, don't you?”

Percy fell silent again, closing his eyes as he let himself fall back against the mattress with a heavy sigh. “I wish I could say it that easily. It's complicated.”

“Love is a complicated thing.”

“Don't I know it?” Percy brought his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. Mitchell's own mother, Aphrodite, had promised to make his love life complicated and he'd thought she'd had her fun by now, but recently, Percy had to wonder if his feelings for Nico were part of Aphrodite's little game. Gods, he hoped not. “Why am I only figuring this all out now, after he left?”

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” Mitchell quoted. “You said that you _notice_ that Nico's gone now. You're so used to Nico being gone, but still popping in once in a while, but now he doesn't and you _feel_ his absence. You're more aware of your feelings because Nico being gone is so different this time.”

Percy mulled it over in his mind for a moment, remembering some of the times he was with Nico – when the son of Hades appeared at his window on his birthday, sharing that piece of blue birthday cake, the day Nico took him to the Underworld to lead him to the Styx, their meeting at Camp Jupiter while Percy had almost no memory and still recognized the younger demigod. Compared to the days that had passed since Nico had left, Percy understood how much he truly missed the son of Hades and wished he would come back.

Percy's chest ached thinking about Nico, guilt wracking at him. If he'd been there for Nico, would the son of Hades have stayed? He still wasn't sure what had made the younger demigod leave in the first place, or why Nico wouldn't contact anyone. If they'd all reached out to him more, would Nico have left? If Percy had figured out his feelings for Nico a long time ago, would he have told him, despite the fact that he was dating Annabeth at the time?

All of these questions couldn't be answered; not unless Nico was the one Percy was asking. Percy took a deep breath, exhaled, and pushed himself back up. “Thanks for talking to me, Mitch,” he told the son of Aphrodite across from him. “I really appreciate it.”

“Any time,” Mitchell nodded. “The door's open whenever you need to talk about this. Believe me, Percy, you're not the only one who's struggled with their sexuality.”

Percy gave a nod and stood up. “Yeah, I know. I'm glad there's someone in camp they can talk to, though.”

Mitchell smiled slightly, grateful for the son of Poseidon's words. “It's good to know I'm helping. Silena would be proud of me, I think.”

“I'm sure she would be. Thanks again, Mitchell.”

Percy left the Aphrodite cabin with a better understanding of himself and his feelings, and he felt better for it. As he headed for his own cabin, intending to pick up a few things before going off to the sword-fighting lesson he was supposed to be giving, Percy thought about what Mitchell had said about him not being the only one struggling with his sexuality. It occurred to him that the way Mitchell had said it had almost been as if the son of Aphrodite was trying to clue Percy in on something. He wondered, considering how their conversation had been touching on Percy's feelings for Nico, if Mitchell had maybe been talking about the absent son of Hades.

Or maybe Percy was now just projecting his own feelings on someone who wasn't even there anymore.

* * * * *

Nico di Angelo had disappeared over a year ago and the hope that he'd return was dwindling. Hazel no longer threw coins into the mist to call for her brother, she no longer asked Percy if he had any luck. Though she made no indication that Nico had died, he might as well have for how she mourned him. She continued her training with the Hecate children, made frequent visits to the arena for weapons training, and spent plenty of time calling Frank over Iris Message, as both the son of Mars and Reyna had returned to Camp Jupiter to lead the Romans.

Every so often, Percy would hang out with her, have a friendly spar with her, and talk to her. He knew she thought of him as an older brother figure and, since Nico was no longer there, Percy wanted to make sure Hazel knew he was there for her. A part of him was still so angry at Nico, despite discovering dormant feelings for the younger demigod, because the son of Hades had just up and left his sister, without saying a word. He was still upset that Nico had never answered any of the Iris Messages that both Hazel and himself had sent.

If Hazel was angry with her brother, she never showed it. She was just sad. Even when she smiled at Percy, he could see the pain in her eyes. Nico had left her alone, to eat alone at an otherwise empty table, to sleep alone in a dark cabin. She'd told Percy once that the idea of being sorted by parent was horrible because she'd be all alone and now she was, because Nico was gone, and Percy knew Hazel hated it. She would spend as much time away from the Hades cabin as she could so she didn't have to spend so much time alone.

As the months passed since Nico's disappearance, Percy's conversations with Hazel had shifted from asking if she'd had any luck in contacting her brother to asking her how her magic training had been going, from asking how she was doing to asking what she wanted to do this time. Their talks became less and less about Nico and Hazel's loneliness and more and more about whether Hazel had any new tricks up her sleeve after learning from the Hecate kids. Talking about Nico only made Hazel sad, so Percy wouldn't talk about him, not to her; he wouldn't make her hurt.

It snowed at Camp Half-Blood on Hazel's birthday. The ground was covered in a blanket of soft snowfall that crunched underfoot as Percy and Hazel walked around the camp. For her birthday, Percy had given her a new sketchbook and some watercolors that he'd gotten from the Iris cabin – experts on color and everything that had anything to do with it – and Hazel carried them in an organic hemp tote bag given to her by Juniper and Grover. Frank had sent her a warm sweater, deep purple with gold threads, which she wore now, and had promised to Iris Message her after dinner. She had other presents she hadn't opened yet, one from Reyna, another from Annabeth, Jason and Piper had gotten her something, as had Leo, and, surprisingly, she'd received one from the Amazons.

“What do you think the Amazons sent you?” Percy asked. He'd seen the package from them on the steps of the Hades cabin earlier, when he'd gone over to invite Hazel for a walk and give her his gift. It had been a moderately sized package, no bigger than the box Frank had sent the sweater in, but the fact that it was from the Amazons had Percy curious.

Hazel gave a shrug. “It might be an orange jumpsuit for me to put Frank in. Kinzie suggests it in her letters sometimes.”

“You get letters from Kinzie?”

“A lot of them send letters. They see me as the greatest female warrior, remember?” Hazel didn't seem very impressed with her own title and, honestly, Percy didn't really blame her. The infamy that came with titles like 'greatest warrior' and 'hero of Olympus' got tiring after a while. “Don't get me wrong, I like the letters, I just wish they sent them more because they honestly want to be friends than because they view me as an idol.”

Percy wrapped his arm around Hazel's shoulders and tugged her close for a half-hug. “So write them back. Send them letters. Make friends with them.”

“I already write them back,” Hazel pointed out with a small smile. She put her arm around Percy's waist to hug him back. She'd grown over the last year, standing a little more than a head shorter than Percy now, and was still growing. She often teased that she'd be taller than Percy soon. “Kinzie's a great pen pal. The others...well, I'm working on them.”

“Good.” Percy pressed a kiss to the top of Hazel's head. He really loved Hazel like the little sister he never had. “Let's head back and put your presents away before the snow gets them wet.”

Hazel gave a nod and hugged Percy again before bringing her arm back to wrap protectively around the sketchbook Percy had given her. The two of them crossed the cabin green, ducking the occasional snowball thrown from the Hermes cabin, and headed for the Hades cabin. They spoke more about Hazel's training with the Hecate kids as they walked, Hazel telling Percy of the charmed objects that the oldest Hecate girl, Tayen, was teaching her to make.

“They're communication charms,” Hazel was explaining as she took the steps to the door of her cabin. “Kind of like cell phones, but they can be anything. Tayen and her girlfriend have bracelets she charmed and I'm trying to charm the necklace Frank gave me last Christmas.”

Hazel pushed open the door to the cabin, ready to continue talking about the charm and her attempts to pull it off, but she suddenly stopped. She stood in the doorway, looking into the cabin with her eyes wide and mouth open in surprise. Percy, confused, stepped behind her and looked inside.

Standing inside was Nico di Angelo.

Percy almost hadn't recognized him. Like his half-sister, Nico had gotten taller, having grown at least half a foot in the last year. His messy black hair was longer than ever, pulled back into a loose ponytail, with bangs that had slipped free to frame his face. Though Nico had always been thin, his body had grown out, no longer gaunt, but now an almost-healthy slim. As the son of Hades turned to them, Percy could see that the young, if solemn, face that he remembered had gotten older, more mature. There were still circles under Nico's eyes, but those dark eyes held less pain than the last time Percy had seen him.

Nico gave a soft smile as he looked at Hazel, just the barest quip of his lips. “Happy birthday, Hazel.”

For a moment, no one moved. Then Hazel marched across the cabin to her brother and, before either Percy or Nico could react, the daughter of Pluto's hand flew to smack Nico's face. The resulting clap echoed in the cabin and Percy winced at the sound. Nico took the slap without a word, standing his ground, as though he was well aware that Hazel was entirely justified in hitting him.

“ _How dare you_!” Hazel yelled at Nico. She stood there in front of him, hand poised and ready for another slap. “How _dare_ _you_ drop off the face of the earth! How _dare_ _you_ not try to contact me, not even a 'hello, I'm still alive'! _How dare you_ come back _on my birthday_ and act like _you haven't been gone for a year_!”

Nico didn't get the chance to say anything in response before Hazel threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly as tears gathered in her eyes. Percy could see her shaking from where he stood in the doorway. He stepped inside, closing the door behind him, and stood there, not wanting to interrupt, but not wanting to leave without finding out where Nico had been for the last year, either.

Hazel pulled away from Nico after a moment, stepping back and crossing her arms over her chest. “You have a _lot_ of explaining to do, Nico di Angelo,” she chastised him.

“I know,” Nico answered, his voice soft. His cheek was red from the slap from Hazel, but if he was in pain, he didn't show it. He moved to sit down on his bed, exhaling a long, slow sigh. “I'm sorry.”

“'Sorry' doesn't cut it,” Hazel told him. She plopped down next to her brother, then motioned for Percy to come closer, reaching her hand out for him. Percy moved closer and took Hazel's hand, but he didn't sit down. “You've been gone for a _year_ , Nico. We couldn't get a hold of you. We didn't know where you were. You didn't tell anyone where you were going. We couldn't even get an Iris message to you!”

“I know.” Nico ducked his head, looking down at his hands. “I was going to stay away. I was going to leave forever.”

“ _Why_?” Percy asked, speaking up for the first time since finding the son of Hades in the cabin. “Why would you leave? You have friends here. You have _Hazel_ here.”

“Because I couldn't stand it here. I didn't belong here.”

“Bullshit,” Percy challenged. “You gave me that excuse once and I didn't buy it then. Why would you think for a second that I'd buy it now?”

“It's the truth,” Nico replied, straightening his back and looking up at Percy at last. His dark eyes met Percy's for a brief moment before he looked away. “As I saw it, anyways. I felt out of place. I needed to leave, to find my place. So I left. I didn't plan to come back.”

Hazel squeezed Percy's hand, obviously upset by Nico's statement. To know that her brother hadn't planned on coming back almost made things worse than not knowing where he was. “Nico, I felt out of place when you brought me back,” she pointed out.

“Yes, but you found your place here,” Nico countered. “You found Frank. You found Arion. You have your friends, your purpose, your home. I had none of that. I lost Bianca. I had no purpose, except to act as a liaison, work in the background. I never found anyone to anchor me here.”

“You have _me_!” Hazel exclaimed. “You have _friends_ here. You have all of us! Aren't we enough?”

Nico fell silent, biting his lip as he ducked his head again. His hands were tangled together, hanging between his knees, fingers twisting the skull ring he wore on one hand. Hazel and Percy were left waiting for an answer and, to be honest, Percy wasn't sure which of them wanted an answer more; Hazel, who'd felt abandoned by her brother, or him, who had only realized his feelings for the son of Hades after Nico had walked out of his life.

“At the time, I don't think I realized it,” Nico finally spoke up. “I was seeing everyone around me, glad to be alive, glad to be with the people they loved, and I didn’t feel a part of that. I didn't think I'd ever be.”

“But you are,” Hazel insisted. “Nico, you know I love you. You're my brother. Your friends love you.”

Nico shook his head. He didn't say anything, but Percy got the feeling that what Hazel said hadn't been what Nico had meant. Percy was sure that Nico had seen everyone together with their loved ones – Percy with Annabeth at the time, Jason and Piper, Hazel and Frank, even Leo admitted to having someone (though he hadn't said who) – and felt left out. Reyna would have been the only other person alone then, though now she was supposedly seeing someone at Camp Jupiter.

Silence filled the cabin for a few moments. Nico made no attempt to continue the conversation, despite the many questions that still needed to be answered. At the very least, it was clear that Nico didn't want to talk about his reasons for leaving. So Percy asked the one question that he'd been repeating almost daily.

“Where were you?”

Nico tensed at the question, hands shifting to squeeze at his knees. “Does that matter?”

“It matters,” Hazel told him. She had been asking the same question almost as often as Percy did. The two of them spent so much time trying to figure out where the son of Hades was. Now both of them needed to know.

Nico hesitated, then sucked in a deep breath. “I went back to Venice at first. I wanted to try to track down my family there. My grandfather was an ambassador, so I thought there would be some record of him. There wasn't much. Not enough to go on to find anything else. So I left Venice again.”

“That couldn't have taken a year,” Hazel pointed out.

“It didn't. I was in Venice for, maybe, two weeks.” Nico's fingers dug into his knees again. “After I left Venice, I wandered for a while, then returned to Dalmatia.”

That took both Hazel and Percy aback. Percy had learned from Jason that there had been a run-in with Cupid at Dalmatia and, though he didn't know any details, Percy had been told that the experience was not a good one for Nico. So why would Nico have gone back to Dalmatia?

“I went to Cupid again,” Nico explained when Hazel pressed him for an answer. “I made a deal with him. That's where I've been since I left Venice.”

Percy and Hazel exchanged glances. What kind of deal would Nico have made with Cupid? Neither of them really knew what had happened in Dalmatia, since Jason wouldn't talk about it anymore. Hazel knew her brother had been shaken, but she never knew what happened. Percy knew even less than she did. All they knew was that there had been an altercation and that Nico had come out of it more angry and withdrawn than usual, so what had happened this time that Nico would have been with Cupid this long?

Nico wouldn't go into detail. He shook his head when Hazel asked more questions, not ready to talk about what he'd been doing for the last year. He _did_ explain why they couldn't contact him; Cupid had apparently spoken with Iris and forbidden contact with Nico, though a reason for that wasn't given. Whatever the reason, Nico hadn't exactly been happy with the arrangement either, so it wasn't as though they could actually be mad at him for it.

After a while, Hazel asked one more question. “Are you going to stay?”

Percy's heart clenched in his chest at the question. He was glad Hazel had asked. He looked to Nico, waiting for an answer. The son of Hades shifted, leaning back and propping himself against the mattress of his bed, chewing on his lower lip for a moment.

“Yeah,” he finally replied. “I'm going to stay, for a while.”

Percy let go of the breath he'd been holding. A while was all he could ask for. “That's good to hear,” he told Nico. He reached out and, lightly, touched his hand to Nico's shoulder. He took his hand away a bare moment later, feeling Nico tense at the touch. “I guess I'll see you around. I should let you and Hazel catch up.”

“Wait,” Hazel said, stopping Percy before he could walk away. “I need a witness.”

Both Percy and Nico looked to Hazel, Nico with one eyebrow arched under too-long bangs. “What?”

Hazel stood up and turned so she was facing Nico. Her golden eyes were hard and dark, a year's worth of emotion – distress, anger, sadness, grief, all swirled together – reflected in the glittering irises. “Nico di Angelo, I hereby forbid you, as your sister, to leave me again without telling me and without promising to come back. Do you understand me?”

Nico's eyebrow rose a little higher. “Hazel, you can't forbid me - ”

“ _Yes, I can_ ,” Hazel told him, voice so firm and commanding that Percy swore the daughter of Pluto had somehow figured out how to Charmspeak. “You left me here _alone_ for a _year_ , Nico! You _are not allowed_ to pull a stunt like that again, and if you do, Hecate help me, I _will jinx you into the next decade_.”

“Hazel.”

“Nico, _you listen to me right now_ ,” Hazel ordered. “I _will not_ let you pull that again. You _are not_ going to abandon me again. _I can't go through that again_. You're my _brother_ , Nico. I love you, but I won't forgive you if you leave me like that again. I _can_ and _will_ forbid you from leaving and I _can_ and _will_ enforce it. _Do you understand me_?”

Nico, maybe despite himself, gave a silent nod, eyes wide under his bangs. Percy couldn't help a smirk, more than a little pleased that Hazel had basically cowed her brother into staying. If she hadn't, he would have tried and, frankly, he wasn't sure he would have had the success that the daughter of Pluto had had. Maybe, now that Nico would be staying for a while, Percy could face his feelings for the son of Hades better than he had while the younger demigod had been absent.

Though he'd wait until Nico had settled in for a while before he brought that up.

“Just so you know,” Percy spoke up as he turned again to leave. “Hazel's not the only one who'll be upset if you leave again. Don't leave your friends behind so easily again, Nico. We all missed you.”

He didn't dare specify “I missed you” just yet.

* * * * *

At dinner that night, Percy was glad to see that Nico was sitting at the Hades table with Hazel, who looked immensely relieved that she wasn't sitting by herself anymore. More than a few people in the dining pavilion were surprised to see the son of Hades had returned; among them, Jason Grace, who'd first told Percy that Nico had said that he was going to leave forever, and Piper McLean, who had been supporting Hazel any time Percy wasn't.

It was pretty good to have Nico back. Yes, Percy was still upset with him for being gone, for leaving Hazel without so much as a word, but seeing Hazel smile again, sitting close to her brother, Percy couldn't bring himself to be _that_ mad at the son of Hades. Well, maybe he could, but not at the moment. He'd be mad at him later; Nico had already had to deal with Hazel yelling at him, then just before dinner started, a group of girls from the Hecate cabin, led by Tayen, had told the son of Hades that they would _not_ let him hurt their friend like that again.

On top of all that, Percy expected that Frank was going to add his own to the promises of making Nico regret leaving Hazel. He figured he could let Nico get away without one more from him for the time being.

All through dinner, Percy would occasionally glance towards the Hades table, just to make sure Nico was still there. After dinner, when the campers all headed for campfire, Percy sat on the stone bench behind Nico and Hazel, the rest of their friends gathering close as well. Jason and Piper, sitting in front of them, finally seemed to get over the shock of seeing the son of Hades back in camp and both of them had welcomed him back. Leo sat on Nico's left and boldly gave the younger demigod a playful, albeit light, punch in the shoulder in greeting. Hazel refused to let Nico leave the campfire, though she didn't make him sing any of the camp songs.

Percy absently realized that the small group was surrounding the son of Hades, closing off the easy escape routes, so Nico couldn't leave. Without thinking about it or even talking to each other, they'd all sat around him to make it clear they weren't going to have a repeat of the last time Nico had been at the campfire, the night before he'd disappeared without a word. Maybe Percy was reading too much into their actions, but at least for Hazel and himself, the campfires had seemed less after Nico's disappearance, as if the songs the other campers sang, so carefree, had merely been symphonies playing in a world without sound.

Tonight, however, as both he and Hazel sang those silly, cheerful, _campy_ camp songs in celebration of Nico's return, those symphonies were tearing down the amphitheatre.

* * * * *

Percy counted the days again, this time, every day since Nico had shown up suddenly back at camp. For every day that the son of Hades stayed, Percy added another mark to his mental tally of days since Nico came back. Three days, four days, five days. He had to go home for Christmas, to spend the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth with his mother and step-father, but he kept counting, even while he was away. Hazel had promised to send him an Iris message if her brother ran off again.

Not that Percy was that worried that Nico would leave again, not after Hazel, the girls from the Hecate cabin, Frank, Jason, Piper, _and_ Leo had all warned him that they would not let him. Percy hadn't so much warned Nico, but told him that if he left again, he would chase after him. Something about the way Nico had reacted to his words, the way Nico's eyes shifted and his lips had twitched, made Percy believe that the younger demigod took him a little more seriously than anyone else.

Still, when he got back to Camp Half-Blood, one of the first things he did was check to make sure Nico was there. Upon seeing the son of Hades standing outside his cabin, talking to Jason, Percy couldn't help smiling and added another day to his mental count. Counting the days this time around was so much easier, each addition to his count making him smile, rather than frown, as they had before.

As the days went by, though, Percy began to notice that, while Nico stayed at camp, the son of Hades wasn't really ever around when Percy came by. Hazel spent plenty of time with her brother, Jason was often seen with the younger demigod, and Travis and Connor had been spotted hanging out with Nico, up to old antics in trying to befriend the son of Hades. Even Leo and Piper got to spend more time with Nico than Percy did.

Not that he ever had the best relationship with the younger demigod. They'd always been a bit distant, Percy couldn't even recall any time he'd actually spent with Nico, blah, blah, blah; he'd had this mental conversation with himself once this fanfic. He'd resolved to change that. His feelings for Nico aside, he wanted to be friends with the other boy, to give him the second thought that he'd failed to give him before.

Nico was just making it hard to do so, the way he barely stuck around whenever Percy joined the group, made excuses when Percy tried to come up with something to do. It was clear to everyone involved that Nico was actively avoiding the son of Poseidon. Percy asked Hazel if her brother had said anything about him and received a bewildered shake of the Roman girl's head; she had no idea why Nico would be avoiding Percy, but she offered to talk to him and try to find out for Percy.

What Percy actually ended up doing was actively cornering Nico. After over a week of the younger demigod making himself sparse around the son of Poseidon, Percy had had enough and wasn't going to take any more of Nico's excuses or disappearing acts. He wanted to know what was going on, why Nico was so intent on ignoring him. So, one morning before breakfast, Percy slipped out of his own cabin and headed right over to the Hades cabin, where he knocked on the door and waited for a moment before it opened.

Nico stood in door, blinking bleary eyes against the light of the morning sun. His hair had never left the ponytail it'd been in the previous day, the band that held it just barely keeping any of his tousled hair together. The oversized camp shirt he wore looked so out of place on the younger demigod's slim frame, Percy so used to seeing Nico in black, black, and more black, rather than the symbolic orange of Camp Half-Blood.

Upon seeing Percy on his doorstep, Nico gave a frown. “What do you want?”

“I want to talk to you,” Percy replied. He refused to leave if Nico turned him down. “Can I come in?”

Nico hesitated for a moment, then pushed the door open more and stepped aside so Percy could get into the cabin. The inside of the cabin was dim, only a small amount of light seeping through the curtains covering the windows, and the only other light came through the still open door. As Percy entered, his eyes scanned the room and he caught sight of Hazel curled up, still blissfully sleeping, on Nico's bed. Her own looked like it hadn't been used in a while.

Nico closed the door and moved over to the corner of the cabin, where there was a desk with a lamp. He switched the lamp on and slid into the chair at the desk, gesturing for Percy to take a seat in the other chair nearby. Crossing his arms over his chest, the younger demigod waited for Percy to talk. After all, wasn't that what Percy had said he was there for? The problem was that Percy had never exactly been good at conversation.

“So, how's it been, being back at camp?” Percy asked.

Nico gave a noncommittal shrug. “It's okay, I guess. I've kept myself busy.”

“I've noticed. I haven't gotten a chance to really talk or hang out with you since you got back.”

There was a moment of silence between the two demigods, Nico not immediately responding to Percy's comment. Percy was almost sure that the temperature in the cabin dropped in the silence, a slow shiver following the curve of his spine as he waited for Nico to say something. The younger demigod, however, remained silent, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed visibly tighter than they'd been a few minutes ago. Even in the dim light of the lamp, Percy could see how Nico's fingers were now digging into his arms.

Clearly, Percy wasn't going to get an explanation that way. “Nico, we're friends, aren't we?”

“I guess.”

“You guess.” Had Percy ever mentioned that Nico was one of the hardest people to talk to? The kid barely spoke to him, the responses he _did_ get from Nico were mostly evasive, and the son of Hades _always_ closed himself off quickly, refusing to give even the barest sign that the conversation was going to go anywhere. Percy heaved a sigh, leaning forward so his elbows were resting over his knees. “Look, Nico. If you don't want to hang out with me because you hate me or something, just _tell_ me. I'd understand if you did.”

“I don't,” Nico spoke up. When Percy looked up at Nico again, the younger demigod was shaking his head. “I don't _hate_ you, Percy.”

“Then what is your problem? You don't hate me, but you don't seem to like me, either.”

Nico was visibly closing himself off again the moment Percy started to pry for answers, eyes cast down and hidden beneath the loose fringe of disheveled black hair. As Percy took a moment to just watch Nico, he noticed just how small the younger demigod was making himself. Clearly, Nico did _not_ want to talk about this, but that only made Percy want answers more, and he was _so tired_ of being ignored, his questions evaded.

“Tell me the truth, Nico.”

For the longest time, the Hades cabin was filled with an almost dead silence, heavy-handed as that sounded. The only sounds were the soft snores from Hazel over on her brother's bed and their own breathing, Percy's slow and purposefully calm, Nico's deep and erratic. Percy waited, watching Nico for any visual clues to what was going on in the other boy's head.

Finally, Nico spoke. “Remember how I told Hazel I went back to Cupid?”

“Yeah?” Percy wasn't sure what this had to do with his question, but he had the feeling that it had a lot to do with it. “You never told us why.”

Nico still didn't look at Percy, his hands lifting higher up his arms. Percy could see indents from his nails in Nico's skin, tiny crescents etched deep into the pale olive skin. “I asked him to make me fall out of love,” he explained, and Percy swore he felt his heart drop into his stomach. “I would do anything he asked of me, just as long as he made me stop loving you.”

“Nico - ”

Gods, how had Percy never seen it before? He'd had the fleeting thought a few months ago, that Nico might have been struggling with his feelings, but it hadn't even occurred to him that, maybe, those feelings would be for him. What Percy had passed off as him projecting his own feelings on the then-absent son of Hades was now glaring right in his face. He'd wondered, when Nico was gone, if he'd somehow been part of the reason the younger demigod had disappeared, if he'd done something to offend or hurt Nico.

How was he supposed to respond to this?

“He had me work for him for a year,” Nico continued, completely unaware of Percy's thoughts and revelations. “I did whatever he asked, menial tasks, errands, anything he thought of to ask me to do. Every time I finished a task, he asked me if I was sure. And I was.”

“You were?” Percy felt cheated in a way, to have just discovered his feelings for Nico a couple of months ago, only to hear that Nico had been in love with him and had asked Cupid to take that love away. It was entirely selfish of him to feel that way, he knew, and he forced himself to beat those thoughts back. This wasn't about him; it was about Nico. “Did he?”

Nico shook his head. “No. I...I changed my mind.”

Percy's heart fluttered in his chest and, again, part of him considered that he might still have a chance. He still focused on Nico. “Why?”

Nico was silent for a long moment and Percy wondered if he was reacting the right way or if he was just pushing the younger demigod further away. All he wanted was the truth. but Nico seemed so unwilling to give it, hesitating and withdrawing, curling into himself as if he needed to protect himself.

“I didn’t want to give up how I felt,” Nico explained. His head was tipped down so low that his chin touched his chest, face completely hidden by a curtain of black locks. Percy had never seen Nico so withdrawn before. “I’ve...I’ve liked you for a long time. My feelings for you helped shape who I am. I would have given up more than just my feelings for you. I didn’t want to do that.”

Nico straightened, taking a deep breath as he pushed himself up, standing to walk past Percy. He raised his hand to his face, brushing his hair - and, Percy realized with no small amount of guilt, a few tears - from his face. He stepped over to his bed, staying quiet as he approached so he wouldn’t wake Hazel, and knelt down to reach under the bed. A moment later, he pulled out an old metal lunch box. The image of Captain America was chipped in many places and the box itself was dented and rusted in places, but Percy doubted the box itself was important.

Nico opened the box as he walked back over to the desk. Inside were a few scattered items. From where he was, Percy recognized the Hades figurine that Bianca had died to get for her brother, a single Mythomagic card, and a perfectly shaped bronze arrowhead. There were some other things in there as well, but he couldn’t get a good look at them, as Nico pulled out the Mythomagic card and closed the box again.

“This was the only card I had that I didn’t burn with the others,” Nico explained, handing the card to Percy. “I think you can guess part of the reason why.”

Percy looked at the card. It was like the other Mythomagic cards he’d seen since he’d been reluctantly been introduced to the game several years ago by the same boy that stood in front of him now. The card’s artwork depicted an explosion of water, swirling whirlpools and crashing tides, with a glowing trident at the eye of the storm. At the top of the card, the card’s name was inscribed in gold foil, instead of black ink like most Mythomagic cards, in letters that took him a moment to decipher: “The Rage of Poseidon.”

It was a card that would, no doubt, have been a reminder of Percy to Nico. Knowing what Nico had told him, Percy wondered if Nico had kept the card because of what had been a lingering crush at the time or if there had been another reason.

“That card was a painful reminder,” Nico told Percy, “of the person I looked up to most, the person who had been my hero from the moment he defended me and my sister from a monster. But it was also a reminder that my hero was as flawed as it is - The Rage of Poseidon forces your opponent to discard their whole hand, but you have to sacrifice one figure.”

Percy immediately recognized the parallel between the card’s effect and the circumstance around Bianca’s death; Bianca had been the sacrifice, her life given so that the others could go on. No wonder the card had been a painful reminder for Nico. He also noted that Nico had said that he was the person he looked up to most and he couldn’t help the surprise that crossed his features. Nico had never told him that before. As far as Percy had known, there had only been that brief time when the son of Hades had first been introduced to their world of gods, demigods, and monsters that Nico had even remotely looked up to him. In the time since then, there had only been that distant coldness from the younger demigod.

“This whole time, you never said anything,” Percy pointed out, holding the card between his fingers. “You never told me any of this. You didn’t even hint at how you felt.”

“Because I knew I never stood a chance. Why would I? Look at who I am, Percy.” Nico stood there in front of Percy, stretching his arms out slightly to bare himself to the world. It wasn’t his physical self that Nico was exposing, his movements merely a gesture. “I’m the son of Hades, locked away from the world for seventy years. I’m the demigod who didn’t belong, the one who never belonged anywhere. I was my father’s least favored. Who would even look my way, much less love me? Certainly not the son of Poseidon, one of the greatest demigods of our age!”

“Nico, that’s not true!” Percy countered. He stepped forward, dropping the Mythomagic card on the desk before putting his hands on Nico’s shoulders. He felt the younger demigod try to shrug his hands away, but he wouldn’t let Nico pull away. “Gods, Nico, _none of that is true_! You _always_ belonged! Your father is proud of you! You have people who love you, Nico!”

He paused for a moment. If there was ever a time to tell Nico how he felt, this was it. Percy might not have another chance - if he knew anything about Nico, it was that when his emotions ran high enough for him to break his usual cool demeanor like this, it wouldn’t be long before Nico left again.

“Nico, since you left, I’ve been thinking about you,” Percy explained. “I’ve been worried about you, just as much as Hazel has been. I knew you were gone, I missed you. I wanted to see you again after you left. I tried time after time to call you, to get an Iris-message to you. It took me a long time to realize why I missed you so much.”

“Percy, don’t - ” Nico brought his hands up and caught hold of Percy’s wrists. His head was down again, refusing to let his gaze meet the older boy’s. Percy could feel the way Nico was shaking, though it was obvious that Nico was trying to force himself not to.

“No, you need to hear me out,” Percy told him. He didn’t let go of Nico’s shoulders; Nico wasn’t pulling his hands away, yet. “Nico, you said it yourself. Not giving someone a second thought is dangerous. In this case, the danger was making you leave. I didn’t think about you until you were gone and, by then, it was too late to tell you how I felt.”

“Stop, Percy.”

Percy couldn’t stop now. He needed to tell Nico and Nico needed to hear it. “I lo - ”

“ _Stop_!” Nico shouted. He finally threw Percy’s hands from his shoulders, taking a step back away from the older demigod. “Do you think I’m an idiot, Percy? Do you really think that I’m going to believe any sort of love confession _now_? I’ve been _gone_ for a _year_ , Percy! How can you love someone who wasn’t here? I’ve changed since I left. You don’t know who I am anymore, so how can you say you _love_ me?”

Percy stepped back himself, surprise once again coloring his features; from the bewilderment in his eyes to the shocked drop of his mouth. “Nico, I - ”

“You _what_ , Percy?” Nico demanded. Now, he looked right at the older demigod. His brown eyes were dark, irises rimmed with a slight red glow of power. The cabin, Percy realized, was suddenly colder and the shadows around them were shifting. “You thought I would immediately fall in your arms just because you _think_ you love me? I loved you, Percy. Part of me still does. But I don’t believe you love me.”

The shadows wrapped around Nico, covering like a blanket, and Percy knew Nico was leaving, just as he always did. Instead of pushing the younger demigod away by not giving him a second thought, Percy had pushed him away by thinking too much, by speaking too much, and not considering Nico’s own feelings. He should have stopped when Nico warned him to do so.

“Nico di _Angelo_ , don’t you _dare_!” Hazel exclaimed.

There was a burst of power from the daughter of Pluto and the shadows surrounding her brother broke apart. Nico blinked and stared at Hazel in shock, having never realized that his sister had gotten that powerful in the time he’d been away. Percy was more than a little surprised himself; he hadn’t even realized Hazel had been awake by that point. Then again, with as loud as both he and Nico had gotten, was it that surprising that the Roman demigod was awake?

“Hazel, I - ”

“Don’t you _even_ think about it, Nico,” Hazel cut him off. She was no longer curled up on the bed, but rather storming over to her brother in her purple flannel pajamas. She prodded him hard in the chest, brow furrowed in her anger. With each jab, the magic she’d learned from the Hecate kids kicked in, changing Nico’s hair from black to varying hues of purple, blue, and green. “You _promised_ you wouldn’t leave again!”

“Hazel, it’s my - ”

The daughter of Pluto turned on the son of Poseidon the moment he spoke up. “And _you_ , Percy Jackson! I don’t know what was going through your head, but you have the _worst_ timing!” The irises of her golden eyes were bright with her anger, startlingly like how her brother’s were just minutes ago, a coruscant fire ringing around her pupils. Even when Nico had first returned to Camp Half-Blood, Percy hadn’t seen Hazel this angry - the last time he’d seen her like this, it was in the fight against Gaea. “Get out of this cabin, Percy. You’ve said _more_ than enough.”

Percy’s mouth snapped shut from the response that had been on the tip of his tongue. He wanted to apologize, to Nico for saying too much and to Hazel for making her brother almost leave again. As Hazel stepped over to Nico, slipping her arms around one of his in a protective gesture. Nico was looking away from both Hazel and Percy, but Percy could see how the younger demigod was shaking, his hands curled into fists so tight his knuckles were turning white.

Hazel was right, Percy decided. He’d said more than enough and right now wasn’t the time for apologies. He needed to give Nico some space, let the other boy calm down so he didn’t do anything rash. So Percy turned away and left the cabin, feeling guilty for everything he’d done to push Nico away.

**End Part I**

 

 


End file.
